VANITY OF THE WORLD.
Ráma said:—O sage! this seemingly pleasing but actually unpleasant
world, has nothing in it that is productive of such a thing as can
afford tranquility to the soul.
2. After the playful boyhood is over, the mind wastes itself in the
society of women like the deer fallen in a cavern, then the body bends
down under old age, and the man has only to grieve (for his folly).
3. As the body is stricken with the frost of old age, its beauty flies
afar from it like the bloom of the fading lotus, and then the fountain
of man’s worldliness is at once dried up.
4. As the body gets towards its decline, so much doth death rejoice
in it. The body grows lean with grey hairs upon the head, just as a
creeper fades away with the flowers upon it.
5. All living creatures are borne away by the stream of avarice, which
upsets the tree of contentment growing on the bank and flows on for
ever in this world.
6. Human body is like a vessel covered with skin; and glides over the
ocean of the world (without its helmsman of reason). It is tossed about
by sensual pleasures, and goes down under the water by the pressure of
its whale-like passions.
7. The world is a wilderness abounding in creepers of avarice and
trees of sensuality, with hundreds of desires as their branches. Our
minds like monkeys pass their time in roving about this forest without
getting the fruits (they seek).
8. Those that do not yield to grief in troubles, that are not elated
with prosperity, nor smitten at heart by women, are rare in this world.
9. Those who fight boldly in the battle fields and withstand the
war-elephants, are not so very brave in my opinion, as those who
withstand the surges of the mind amidst the streams of carnal appetites.
10. I see no such deeds in the world which endure to the last (or final
emancipation) of men. Actions proceeding from a desire of fruition in
fools, serve only for their restlessness on earth.
11. Such men are rare in the world, that have filled the corners of the
world with their fame and valour, who have filled their houses with
true riches acquired by honest means and an unwavering patience.
12. Good and bad fortune always overtake a man, even if he were living
in an aperture of the rock or within the walls of mountains, or even if
he were enclosed within an iron built closet.
13. Our sons and riches are mere objects of delight to us. It is as
erroneous to suppose them to be of any good to us at the end, as to
expect any benefit from the decoction of poison.
14. Old people being reduced to calamitous circumstances at the
pitiable state of the decay of their bodies and decline of life, have
greatly to be tormented at the thoughts of the impious deeds (of their
past lives).
15. Men having passed their early days in the gratification of their
desires and other worldly pursuits at the expense of the acts of virtue
and piety, are as much troubled with anxieties at the end, that their
minds are seized with a tremor like that of the plumage of a peacock
shaken by the breeze. How then can a man attain to tranquility at any
time?
16. Wealth whether forthcoming or unattainable, whether got by labour
or given by fortune, is all as deceitful to the worldly minded, as the
high waters of rivers (swelling only to subside).
17. That such and such desirable acts are to be done, are the constant
thoughts of men, who desire to please their sons and wives, until they
are worn out with age and become crazy in their minds.
18. Like leaves on trees that grow to fall, and falling make room for
others to shoot forth, are those men who devoid of reason, die away
daily to be born again.
19. Men having travelled here and there and far and near, return to
their homes at the end of the day; but none of them can have rest by
day or night, except the virtuous few that live by honest dealings.
20. After quelling his enemies and getting enough of riches in his
clutches, the rich man just sits down to enjoy his gains; when death
comes upon him, and interrupts his joy.
21. Seeing the vile trash of worldly gains earned and accumulated
by the basest means to be but transitory, the infatuated mob do not
perceive their approaching dissolution.
22. Men loving their own lives, and making mouths at the demise of
others, are like a herd of sheep bound to the stake, and staring at the
slaughter of their fellows, yet feeding themselves to fall as fattened
victims to death.
23. The multitude of people on earth, is ever seen to appear in and
disappear from it as fast as the passing waves of the sea, but who can
tell whence they come and whither they return.
24. Women are as delicate as poisonous creepers, that with their red
petaled lips and garments, and their eyes as busy as fluttering bees,
are killers of mankind and stealers of their ravished hearts.
25. Men are as passengers in a procession, repairing from this side and
that to join at the place of their meeting. Such is the delusive union
of our wives and friends here (for our meeting in the next world).
26. As the burning and extinguishing of the lamp depend on the wick and
its moistening oil; so does our course in this transitory world (depend
on our acts and affections only). Nobody knows the true cause of this
mysterious existence.
27. The revolution of the world is comparable with that of the potter’s
wheel and the floating bubbles of rain water; that appear to be lasting
to the ignorant observer only.
28. The blooming beauty and graces (of youth), are destined to be
snatched away at the approach of old age. The youthful hopes also of
men fly at a distance like the bloom of lotus buds in winter.
29. The tree which is ordained to be useful to mankind by the loads of
fruits and flowers that it bears upon its body, is fated also to be
hewn down by the cruel axe at last. How then can beneficent men expect
to avoid the cruel hand of death.
30. Society with relatives is (of all others) as perilous as that of a
poisonous plant; it is pleasant for its domestic affections, which are
in reality but delusions of the soul.
31. What is that thing in the world, which has no fault in it; and what
is that which does not afflict or grieve us; what being is born that
is not subjected to death, and what are those acts that are free from
deceit?
32. Those living a _Kalpa_ age are reckoned as short-lived, compared
with those living for many _Kalpas_, and they again are so in respect
to Brahmá. Hence the parts of time being all finite, the ideas of their
length or shortness are altogether false.
33. Things that are called mountains are made of rocks, those that are
called trees are made of wood, and those that are made of flesh are
called animals, and man is the best of them. But they are all made of
matter, and doomed to death and decay.
34. Many things appear to be endued with intelligence, and the heavenly
bodies seem to be full of water; but physicists have found out by
analysis that, there is no other thing any where except (_minutiæ of_)
matter.
35. It is no wonder that this (unreal world) should appear a miraculous
(reality) to the wise, and seem marvelously striking in the minds
of mankind; since the visions in our dreams also appear so very
fascinating to every one in their state of dreaming.
36. Those that are corrupted in their greediness (after worldly
enjoyments), will not even in their old age, receive the sermons on
their eternal concerns, which they think to be false chimeras as those
of a flower or a creeper growing in the sky.
37. People are still deluded in their minds in wishing to attain the
state of their superiors; but they fall down still lower like beasts
(goats) from the top of a hill, in wishing to lay hold on the fruits of
a verdant creeper out of their reach.
38. Young men spending their wealth in personal gratifications, are
as useless as plants growing in the bowels of a deep and inaccessible
cavern, which spread their fruits and flowers, leaves and branches and
their shades to the use of nobody.
39. Men are found to resemble the black antelopes (in their
wanderings): some of them roving about the sweet, soft and beautiful
sceneries of the country, and others roaming in sterile tracts and
parts of boundless forests. (_i.e._ Some living in the society of men,
and others as recluses from it).
40. The daily and diversified acts of nature are all pernicious in
their nature; they appear pleasant and ravishing to the heart for a
time, but are attainded with pain in the end, and fill the mind of the
wise with dismay.
41. Man is addicted to greediness, and is prone to a variety of wicked
shifts and plots; a good man is not now to be seen even in a dream, and
there is no act which is free from difficulty. I know not how to pass
this state of human life.